daddz

At least it has a nice pair of hubcapsLOL

One of my clients alerted me to a Z car that he had seen while giving a co-worker a lift to work a couple of months ago. He told me of this car on Friday and we agreed to go look at it yesterday (Saturday April 12,2003). I was both shocked and puzzled as to why someone would leave an old Z out in the elements and not drive the car. The owner is a 73 years "young" man who bought the car about 15 or 16 years ago (I have not seen the title to verify this). The owner told me that he is the third owner of this car and that the second owner sold it to him in Northern Virginia after his son got into an accident with the Z which dented the front bumper and hood. The hood was replaced by the current owner and the bumper looks to be in pretty good shape to me so I don't think it was a serious accident. The radiator core support is fine and doesn't have any rust on it. The owner stated that he has a whole lot of extra parts that go with the car (i.e. new rocker panels, lower front fender repair panels,rocker panel repair panels, alot of manuals and a restoration book and miscellaneous catalogs). The owner is also in the business of breeding and selling horses and had a few on the premises and thus the Z doesn't get tended to or driven. He also stated that before the Z he used to own an Austin Healey 3000, Austin Healey Frogeye Sprite and various other Bristish sportscars so at least we know he is/was a sportscar guy. The first thing I noticed was the car has been painted black (a fairly cheap paint job but thorough as in the door jambs and engine bay were paint matched) over its original color. The original color was a butterscotch (the license plate area was not painted--must have had the plate while at the body shop). The car also has had a sunroof installed :-( but it was a quality installation and the interior shows no sign of having had any water leaking into it. The dashboard is not cracked and I could not find any evidence of a cover being overlayed. The seats were re-upholstered at some point (the grain replicates that of a '75 or '76 280Z). The interior is cmplete and it still has the original steering wheel and shift knob. The production date is 06/71 and the VIN# is HLS30-32996 and has been in the Washington,D.C. area its entire life. The engine has an E88 head and appears to be in original working condition. The original Hitachi S.U. type carbs are all present with the correct linkages. The original air cleaner is not installed and instead two K&N filters have been installed.The owner states that he will start it for me next Saturday when I go back to look at the car. He also wanted to blead the clutch hydraulics as well.The frame and floors and engine bay strut towers show no signs of rust through (I am sure there is some lurking somewhere). The hatch panel is not rusted through either (the horizontal panel that catches all of the water). The hatch glass has the vertical defroster grid but no vents. It also has a set of "Shadow" louvers on the hatch. I believe the engine serial number is L24-8540 (my eyesight is not the greatest). The odometer reads 89,567 but is probably 189,567 however the owner told me that it wasn't driven terribly much. The most interesting feature are the wheels--they look to be the old Empi style wheels and still have the original center caps! If you are not sure of what these wheels look like imagine the old Mini-Lite wheels with thinner spokes or look in the Road & Track Guide to Datsun Z's '70-'83 and in the first couple of pages there is a photo of a 240Z by the waterfront with the exact same style of wheels on it. The tires are whitewall tires (must have reminded him of the old British sportscars) and appear to be just starting to suffer from dry rot. What to do with this car? I say make it a daily driver due to the sunroof. I don't think it would take much to get this car running in good order at this point. There is a junkyard in Brandywine, Md. (about 25 miles from where the car sits) that has a '71 240Z with a nice undamaged roof that could be had for not much money if you wanted to put the solid roof back on (lots of money to have a bodyshop do this). The wheels could be sold off to help offset the cost of buying this car. I think I will pass on this car as I own 7 Z's already and no more storage space :disappoin . If nobody picks up on it I probably will end up buying it because I can't stand to see an old 240Z just sitting and not being used :classic: :classic: p.s. I didn't bring a digital camera because I honestly didn't expect the car to be as nice as it was. You would have to see the the ZX that my client drives to understand.

Professionals? I would first consider Mike McGinnis, owner of Banzai Motorworks a "professional". He has commented to me regarding this car however, I would refer any potential interested parties to contact him through his website at: http://www.zzxdatsun.com/ To give you an idea regarding his background, Mike has been servicing Datsuns since 1970 and a few British makes since 1968. Mike has also campaigned a few cars in the past and understands the Z cars from both the restoration aspect as well as the maintenance/ upgrade aspect. I wouldn't recommend someone as a "professional" based on their ability to sell cars such as the Z when they were new and in the present being a defacto hobbyist. This car seems to have generated alot of animated responses from all sides and maybe if we're lucky it will end up in the right hands. Given it's history and condition and it not having been painted a more desirable color at the factory it may or may not sell. As seems to be case with this unusual post...let the games/flames begin :tapemouth

Carl, The fish you're smelling is probably on the dinner table?:classic: The owner in not wanting to disclose his true identity to a message board at this point has been working in Washington,D.C. as an elected official for the past 30 years---maybe that would explain the Alaskan plates? Washington, D.C. being the strange city that it is often bears witness to this type of story; a person comes to work here and personal hobbies and interests take second place to the career or assignment at hand. It is not unheard of for cars to sit for years in parking garages in Washington. Last week an investment client of mine who works for the U.S. Senate told me of a 1956 Chevrolet Belair 4 door sedan that has been parked in such a garage since 1959! The car has only covered a little more than 6,000 miles since new! It may not be a desirable car to most people but there is a term in the classic car world known as "provenance", the definition of the word is as follows: "the history of ownership of a valued object or work of art or literature"--Merriam Webster dictionary This car definitely falls into the category defined by the word provenance as this car has a unique history that is as interesting as the car itself when judged from the perspective of who has owned it. Unless 240Z's grow on trees in California or are spontaneously reformulating from FeO2 I suspect that attrition and entropy will continue to dimish the numbers of available Z cars that are worth coveting. If you want a usable classic that happens to be a Datsun Z then buy a cheap old 280Z and molest it to your hearts content.:devious: As I recall from my meeting in Fairfax with Mr. Moore, the caretaker, the ignition assembly was disassembled so that the key wouldn't wear out the switch not to mention the acids from your skin coming in contact with the surface of the switch itself. As it sits the car can be started with a simple flathead screwdriver. The biggest problem in bringing the appearance of the car to its present state is the lack of dedication on the part of the caretaker and possibly the period of time it sat in a garage (1974-1990). Anyways..your fish are probably cold now after reading this post?

Hey Joe, Thanks for listing this ad ; I wasn't sure how much longer I could wait before "spreading the gospel" about this car. I sincerely hope it ends up in the "right" hands. It might have been fun to see the reaction it would have generated via ebay. In any case I now have seven of these cars and not a proper storage facility for this car. It would also be fun to imagine it going back home to Japan to live out the rest of its days.:classic: BTW: The 350Z had a good workout this weekend (went to Tampa w/ Jim--what's another 2k miles?), talk to you later..

Lance, I don't have the parts you are looking for but, B & M King George Auto Parts in Brandywine has an automatic trans. 1971 240Z that just came in a couple of months ago and is still there including the transmission and interior parts. B & M King George auto Parts is located at 11700 Brandywine Rd. Clinton, Md. 20735 http://www.kinggeorgeautoparts.com/ check them out as they specialize in older foreign cars